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National Register

National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Program

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.

The 1929 Eads School Gymnasium is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the areas of Entertainment/Recreation, Education, and Social History. The building is important in the area of Entertainment/Recreation for its history as the only school gymnasium in Eads from its construction until completion of the current high school in 1963. In the area of Education, the gymnasium is important not only for housing the physical education classes and school athletic teams of Eads, including the training of every student within the district, the building also accommodated other educational programs of the school, such as those of the Domestic Science/Home Economics, Music, and Drama departments considered a vital part of a modern curriculum at the time of its construction. In addition, many important school events, performances, and activities took place in the building, including concerts, plays, holiday programs, dances, and graduations. In the area of Social History, the gymnasium provided a venue for a wide variety of community social and civic activities and was used by a federal social welfare program during the Great Depression. Former Eads resident Kathleen Davisson observes that there werent many places in Eads to hold community eventsat least not until the new courthouse was built with the community room! And that only for small crowds. So you really had only one choice for a community eventthe gym.

Properties are listed in the National Register of Historic Places under four criteria: A, B, C, and D. For information on what these criterion are and how they are applied, please see our Bulletin on How to Apply the National Register Criteria